What never ceases to amaze me about investors is their utter disdain for logical explanations of economic occurrences. It seems to be that logic is often forgone for euphoria, this feeling that “the good times can never end.” Maybe that logic is NOT as widespread or dispersed as I once thought. The older I get the more market experience I have, leads me to believe that investors are perpetually ignorant, and certainly forgetful. I can’t really attribute one specific human trait that perpetuates this theory about investors, but I am sure it’s a whole host of things. However I can safely now, include investment managers into this loop as well. Maybe managers are a bit more arrogant, a bit more complacent to their own inadequacies and that’s what leads them down paths of destruction.

Volatility simply describes to what degree the price of a market security typically changes. Volatility can be “high” or “low.” But volatility – at any level – cannot be given the simple labels of “good” or “bad.”

To financial professionals, volatility is an unemotional, mathematical metric. But to everyday folks, volatility spurs fearful panic when it’s high… and fearful suspicion when it’s low.